Off the Wagon Too! And happy??? (maybe)

Off the Wagon Too! And happy??? (maybe)

03-04-2008, 12:31 PM

Well, today I just felt so overwhelmed with all these lists, these projects, somedays/maybes, etc . . . that I tossed them all!! I sat down with an index card and made a simple list of what I want to get done today. And you know what??? It feels so much better! I feel more open. I know what I need to get done today - nothing else to worry about. No context. No, "i have 5 minutes, what can i be doing". None of that. Today I have 5 things to do. I'm going to get them done. All those other "NAs" - I don't want to see them. I only want to see my 5 for today.

I'm not advocating completely throwing GTD out the window or anything like that. I just wanted to share.

Well, today I just felt so overwhelmed with all these lists, these projects, somedays/maybes, etc . . . that I tossed them all!! I sat down with an index card and made a simple list of what I want to get done today. And you know what??? It feels so much better! I feel more open. I know what I need to get done today - nothing else to worry about. No context. No, "i have 5 minutes, what can i be doing". None of that. Today I have 5 things to do. I'm going to get them done. All those other "NAs" - I don't want to see them. I only want to see my 5 for today.

I'm not advocating completely throwing GTD out the window or anything like that. I just wanted to share.

You have fallen under the sway of those evil de-programmers. Just take a deep breath and follow the nice man with your next actions and everything will be alright.

I thinK we all feel the way that you do from time to time. I've even gone as far as tearing up my list of N/A's. How can it be wrong when it feels so good

Dave

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It is okay -- if you have seen some of my posts about making a hybrid of GTD with Do it Tomorrow, you would see that I advocate strongly about creating a daily focus list. You still can maintain all of your long next action lists (I don't use contexts myself anymore as they do not help me), but it is empowering to me to see my list for the day shrink instead of growing before my eyes.

I strongly suggest you obtain a copy of Mark Forster's "Do it Tomorrow". One CAN do GTD and this approach in a nice hybrid.

Best regards,
-Longstreet

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I sat down with an index card and made a simple list of what I want to get done today. And you know what??? It feels so much better! I feel more open. I know what I need to get done today - nothing else to worry about.

For some (me included) this is very helpful--though I too do it as part of GTD.

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I too have tried to implement DIT and GTD. My initial response after a couple of days of using a daily diary for next actions was, it was not that helpful. It led to lots of re-writing and another thing to look at. Instead of the daily diary I find it better to remind myself to look at my NA list more frequently. It actually saves time not rewriting what doesn't get done. If you finish everything and still have time in the day you are going to look at your NA list anyways. If you don't re-write you will end up with lots of pages to flip through pretty soon. I think it best to just scan the lists more frequently.

My 2 cents

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My GTD/DIT hybrid system is entirely through Outlook 2007, so there isn't any re-writing of things -- any next actions from my daily focus list automatically move over to the next day, or I can very easily move actions around. So I still get the benefit of a small, very focused list AND the rest of the next actions list on the same system. It works for me...

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I understand, if you've browsed my poorly spelled thread "Off the GTWagon and under it", you'll see we're not the only ones. Brent had what I feel is a breakthrough idea. White board! I'm trying to keep my high priority, must do soon, around the house NA list on a white board - I don't need a computer, Palm or even a piece of paper to stop and read, the list is in my face. I'm going to try to keep more strategic lists and things that aren't high priority on my computer.

I've found that trying to replicate the template GTD is more stressful than just taking what works best for me and adapting the rest. Not sure I'll succeed, but I'm motivated and hopeful again.

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Well, today I just felt so overwhelmed with all these lists, these projects, somedays/maybes, etc . . . that I tossed them all!! I sat down with an index card and made a simple list of what I want to get done today. And you know what??? It feels so much better! I feel more open. I know what I need to get done today - nothing else to worry about. No context. No, "i have 5 minutes, what can i be doing". None of that. Today I have 5 things to do. I'm going to get them done. All those other "NAs" - I don't want to see them. I only want to see my 5 for today.

I'm not advocating completely throwing GTD out the window or anything like that. I just wanted to share.

Just a thought: Do you (or did you) trust your system? After writing all the stuff, do you still want to keep it in head, and therefore get frustrated? Do you keep thinking about the size of stuff that you have got down?

Another curiosity: what will happen to thoughts (which you cannot stop) such as, "oh yes, I need to do something about that!"? How will you decide what five things you will do today in the first place?

As many others find convenient, it is all right if you make a list of things to do today out of your NA lists (and then keep the entire inventory away for the day - perhaps). Especially it might be intimidating to look at long lists when your energies are low.

I hope you have not entirely dumped your inventory; you have just pushed it aside out of frustration, and still have a chance to have it back if you feel so.

Abhay

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Well, today I just felt so overwhelmed with all these lists, these projects, somedays/maybes, etc . . . that I tossed them all!! I sat down with an index card and made a simple list of what I want to get done today. And you know what??? It feels so much better! I feel more open. I know what I need to get done today - nothing else to worry about. No context. No, "i have 5 minutes, what can i be doing". None of that. Today I have 5 things to do. I'm going to get them done. All those other "NAs" - I don't want to see them. I only want to see my 5 for today.

I'm not advocating completely throwing GTD out the window or anything like that. I just wanted to share.

Nice! But I wouldn't throw those NAs out just yet. Keep them handy so you can make a logical decision about what to put on tomorrow's index cards.

Just a little advice from a guy who lives his life day-to-day, as well.

Tom S.

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Consider Zen To Done: it's a simplified(ish) version of GTD, which includes 3 'big rocks' each day: important tasks that you really want to get done, so you work on them first. There's even a Simplified ZTD, for a nice basic start (for lazy people like me ).